FOOD CONSUMPTION AND AVAILABLE NUTRIENTS IN THE SCHEDULED CASTE POPULATION OF KURNOOL DISTRICT, ANDHRA PRADESH

The increasing pressure of population on land as well as precarious nature of agriculture in the drought prone areas have been accentuating the problem of undernourishment and malnutrition. It is not uncommon that the incidence of nutritional deficiency diseases is high in poor, vulnerable and downtrodden groups of population. The low standards of Nutrition leading to cause a variety of diseases like Goitre, Rickets, Anaemia, unsafe pregnancies, Beri-Beri, Pellagra, Scurvey, Fatigue, Colitis, Avitaminosis, Diarrhoea, Underweight, Conjunctivitis, Coronary heart diseases, defects in basic metabolism, slow pulse, lowered blood pressure, Suppression of menses in women, Dry, Coarse & cold skin, Insomnia, Osteoporosis Nutritional edema, Burning sensation in the feet and hands etc. It is now known that malnutrition may aggravate the clinical course of some infectious diseases. Thus, directly (or) indirectly both malnutrition and undernutrition accounts for a considerable part of the ill health among the population.In this context, an attempt is made here to study the consumption of food and available nutrients in the scheduled caste population of kurnool district, Andhra pradesh.